Chrissy's Random Life: A Knitting Blog

Update You're Bookmarks!

2008-09-05T19:06:00.000-07:00

Come on over to the new blog!

I hope you guys will join me this weekend for a little blog-warming!

Noro Striped Scarf...

2008-09-03T07:38:00.000-07:00

I'm working on a highly addictive project right now. I mean, can't put it down, knitting instead of eating and sleeping, addictive.

I'm referring to the Noro Striped Scarf made famous by Brooklyn Tweed.

Here is my progress so far ---

I picked up 4 skeins of Noro Silk Garden (original weight) from the Three Bags Full Anniversary Sale last weekend (omygod it was a zoo in there, but that's a story for another day).

I cast on first thing Sunday morning, and couldn't put it down. I can't wait to see what color each new stripe will be, and how it will interact with the next stripe from the other ball.

This scarf may be fairly plain, but it is certainly not boring to knit. I also love that the 1x1 rib looks like stockinette, but without the curling.

At this rate, I'll have it all done by next weekend!

Seedy Slouch Hat!

2008-08-31T12:24:00.000-07:00

I test knit this hat for the designer, Christa Giles, a few months ago, but I had to wait until it was released before I could post about it.

So, here it is ---

Of course I've forgotten which colorway I used, but the yarn in Malabrigo Silky Merino, and the pattern only takes 1 skein!

In case you're interested, the pattern can be downloaded from Ravelry here. It's a quick knit, and it looks great on.

And the back---

I know I'll be getting a lot of use out of it this fall. The only annoying thing about this hat is all the increases at the top (it's top down). I found them pretty fiddly on dpns. Seriously though, the finished product is totally worth it.

I'm going to make myself another one out of the Malabrigo Silky Merino I picked up from Three Bags Full yesterday (it's turquoise).

Saturday, Woo Hoo!

2008-08-30T18:58:00.000-07:00

This weekend was another much needed weekend for me, especially after a fairly hectic payroll week!

Proof that I still knit socks -

It's funny - I get a very different feeling when I knit socks compared to any other projects. I think it's serenity. This one is going to be knit in one of the patterns from Sensational Knitted Socks ( the first one). I'm not sure which one, but I'll have to decide soon, because if the ribbing gets any longer, it'll just be a ribbed sock!

In my haste to get out of work on Friday, I managed to forget to email my show notes to myself at home, so they are stuck on my work computer for now. I still haven't decided if I want to wing it for this week. I'll likely put together a show tomorrow.

Speaking of podcast related things, Juno Regina is going really well. I'm in the boring middle part, which is pretty much 42" of the same lace row followed by a purl row. I think I need a day of two off from it. I am about 30" into it. I just remembered that I have yet to take a picture of it.

Stu and I just got home from a nice walk down at Kits beach. We grabbed some Starbucks and sat on a bench 10 feet from the water and watched the sunset.

I spent the early half of the day at Three Bags Full on Main Street attending their 2nd Anniversary Sale. There were lots of deals to be had, as well as cupcakes. It was really nice to be surrounded by "my people". It's funny, because I heard at least two other people use that exact phrase today.

This morning I told Stu "I have to go to the yarn store. My people are congregating" . He found that highly amusing.

Here's my haul from all the shopping this morning -

If you go to my Flickr page you can see exactly what everything is.

I had a great time, and I'm looking forward to doing some more knitting!

PS. The Cherry Tree Hill Super Sock was 50% off!

A Few Realizations....

2008-08-24T17:40:00.000-07:00

This particular colorway is my favorite yarn color ever!

The bottoms of Redd's feet are very hairy.

Isn't it great when vacations are productive? ;)

For Those Who Wonder What I Do When I Have Too Much Time On My Hands...

2008-08-19T11:46:00.000-07:00

WInners!!!!

2008-08-18T18:12:00.000-07:00

Alright, thanks to the random.org we have 2 randomly selected winners!

I'm totally excited to announce our two winners!

In no particular order:

1) allergicmom

2) knittinginpink

Congratulations ladies!

Email me and let me know which color family you like most, and whether you'd like 100% superwash merino or 70% superwash merino 30% seacell.

Hot Weather & Hot Lights Don't Mix!

2008-08-17T21:50:00.001-07:00

I just finished photographing *most* of the yarn I've dyed up so far, and boy are the lights for my lightbox hot!

I decided to finish off with a group picture - and here is some of it!

All 100% Naturally Dyed!

All of these will be up in the shop at some point tomorrow. I'm glad you guys seem to be enjoying the Pattern Tamers. I know I am!

I'm trying to get back in the habit of blogging, so forgive me if I post fairly frequently.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot - I still haven't taken any pictures of Juno Regina yet! I'll try to get some tomorrow. For those who don't know, we're having a Juno Regina knit along on The Manic Purl.

I'll also be announcing the winner(s) of the contest (started a few posts ago if you're behind on your reading). You still have about 2 hours to enter!

See you guys tomorrow!

ETA: *By naturally dyed I mean that I only use dyes I extract from plants. I only use alum as a mordant - because it's not considered particularly harmful.

Afternoon Plans...

2008-08-17T11:35:00.000-07:00

I plan on playing with these -

Mini-skeins of yarn (each one is only about 6 inches long).

I'll be fiddling with acid dye colorways. Hmm.....what could I be up to?

One last reminder that you have until midnight tonight (PST) to drop me a line if you want to win some naturally dyed yarns (see 2 posts previous).

Home For A Rest...

2008-08-16T15:36:00.000-07:00

Today is day one of my one week vacation! I desperately need some R&R and I'm looking forward to a week of knitting and relaxing.

I'm going to leave the yarn give away open until midnight pst tomorrow night - so if your interested, make sure to leave a comment on my last post.

FYI - I just got Episode 9: Olympic Knitting up on Libsyn, so check your iTunes if you've been waiting for another episode of The Manic Purl Podcast.

I got my first order from Eat.Sleep.Knit last night, and I've "run" my first mile of their yarn marathon! This is going to be the easiest marathon EVAR!

The pictures are of the goodies from Eat.Sleep.Knit ----

2 skeins of J.Knits Lace-a-licious! in Boston (blue) and Pueblo (green-ish), 1 skein of Claudia Handpainted in Teal Party (teal and brown), and 1 skein of Yarn Love Marianne Dashwood in contentment (blue, green, grey).

Have a great weekend!

A Few More Buttons...

2008-08-11T18:32:00.000-07:00

I figured it would be best to have some Yarn Sprout button options for those who are interested.

For those who like the pinks -

For those who like the purples -

Remember to link them to www.yarnsprout.com!

Now for the good stuff -

Are you interested in a free skein of Yarn Sprout 100% Naturally dyed yarn?

In an attempt to get Yarn Sprout "out there" a little more, I'd like to give a few skeins away. The only catch is that you need to have a blog so you can blog about your experience with Yarn Sprout!

Leave me a comment if you are interested in a free skein, and I'll draw names from a hat in a few days!

Yarn Sprout Button...

2008-08-04T11:12:00.000-07:00

As requested - here is the Yarn Sprout button!

Please save it to your own server. Thanks!

For those who are interested - I managed to get the 8th episode of The Manic Purl Podcast up last night, and I am now knitting a bunch of lace.

The Big Reveal...

2008-07-30T07:16:00.000-07:00

Alright guys, I know I've been absent for a while, but I can finally show you what I've been working on!

I'm excited to announce that Yarn Sprout: 100% Naturally Dyed Yarn is now open for business!

I'll be adding more stuff later this week, so don't forget to bookmark the site!

I'd also be forever appreciative if you'd help spread the word!

Summer Lounging

2008-07-27T20:41:00.001-07:00

redd, originally uploaded by Martin Lopatka.

You'd never know that Redd is afraid of cameras!

I just wanted to pop by and let you guys know that there will be a big yarn-y announcement later this week.

Stay tuned....

1 Month...

2008-07-26T07:07:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been almost a month without blogging. I feel like I've forgotten how to type!

I am alive and well, and I really appreciate all the inquiries into my well being.

I wanted to pop on here, and let everyone know that my absence is not from some big falling-out with knitting, nor is it from a desire to stop blogging. It is simply caused by me overcommitting myself.

When it rains it pours, and for some reason this always has me go and find a hose to spray myself with at the same time - if you get what I mean. My mom always says that I never have nothing going on.

We did finally find a new person at work, but somehow - and I really have no idea how this happened - I have even more work to do! I still love my job, but honestly, I love it more when it's not taking up 10-12 hours a day.

Our new person is excellent, and the perfect fit, which makes me endlessly happy. We also have got 2 other new people in our office, and 3 new site supers, and for some reason I've become the go-to person for questions, which is also creating a lot more work for me. Of course, with expansion comes more new people, and my payroll has ballooned in the last month and a half.

Today is our work barbeque for 150 people, and somehow I am in charge of that too!

On top of all this - I have decided to start my own business with the hopes of one day working full time at it. I'm not quite ready to launch yet, but you guys will be the first to know when it's good to go. I'm pretty sure you'll be interested in checking it out.

As for the podcast - I am not abandoning it - it's just on a temporary hiatus.

We are all in good health, and the cats are having a wonderful summer of catching bugs and waking up at the crack of dawn.

I promise I'll be back soon.

Hugs to all!

Chrissy :)

Black Sheep Gathering 2008 - The Haul

2008-06-29T05:50:00.000-07:00

Here's what followed me home from the Black Sheep Gathering this year. I think I'm going need a bigger coffee table if I keep this up. I had to go get another storage bin last night to keep all this stuff safe, and it filled the whole thing!

And yes, those are 8 hanks of Socks That Rock, and enough fiber for more than 3 sweaters. Hey, I never claimed to have self control.

If you want more details, I talked about the festival on the podcast this week. I'm also going to be talking about it more in the next few shows.

Now, considering it's before 6:00am on a Sunday, I'm going to go get myself a Caramel Machiato from Starbucks.

Have a great Sunday!!

Well, Well...What Do We Have Here...?

2008-06-09T18:41:00.000-07:00

Could it be? Is it? Why, yes! It is a finished pair of Monkey socks!

Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A. (free on Knitty.com).

Yarn: Yarn Love Elizabeth Bennet in the Awakening Earth colorway.

Needles: 2.5mm 32" Knitpicks circular needle.

Started and finished in less than a week! I wasn't sure how much yarn I'd have for these, so I opted for only 4 ankle repeats.

More on the podcast this week. I almost sound normal!

Mr. Greenjeans - Modeled!

2008-06-07T15:51:00.000-07:00

We finally got a bit of sunshine today, and I took that to mean that it was meant to be that I get a few pictures of me modeling Mr. Greenjeans.

This is my favorite sweater ever! It fits perfectly, and the color is really great on me - if I do say so myself!

I think I will definitely be knitting at least one more for me (and maybe one for my mom).
This is the medium size and it took about 3.25ish skeins of Dream In Color Classy in the Blue Lagoon colorway (teal is my fave!).

I had to wear my new Love (1) Ravelry tee, because that is really how I feel about this sweater.

I can't believe how slimming it is. I guess it nips in at just the right place.

The only alteration I made was knitting plain ribbing on the sleeves, and ending the bottom of the sweater with a bit of plain ribbing. Other than that, it's knit exactly as written.

PS. The podcast will be back next Saturday (I've been battling a really bad sinus infection all week and I still don't sound normal).

Well, what are you waiting for? Go knit your own Mr. Greenjeans!

Apparently I Fell Off The Face of The Earth!

2008-05-31T08:21:00.000-07:00

Mr. Greenjeans is finished!

In the end I opted for 4 buttons.

The yarn I used was Dream In Color Classy and I just used 3 and a bit skeins. This yarn is fabulous!

The colorway is Blue Lagoon.

Sorry to be a bit absent from the blog lately. Work has been crazy and the podcast has been really time consuming.

I'm going to spend the rest of the weekend relaxing - and doing minimal stuff for work. I might go and get a new Lexie Barnes bag - you know the one that's just little and rectangular and has a detachable strap? I think it would make a great summer purse. For some reason I like that yellow and brown-ish colorway. I've got to ditch my huge white leather purse. It's too heavy and definitely needs cleaning. It's actually a lot more grey and dingy than white.

I hope you're all having a great one!

PS. Episode 5 - Do Not Fear The Short Row is ready for download.

More Wool Tourism is Afoot!

2008-05-14T06:49:00.000-07:00

I am so totally jazzed! Stu and I decided to drive down to Eugene, Oregon and go to the Black Sheep Gathering in June! Woot!

Does anyone know which vendors are going to be there?

I am officially on a seriously strict yarn diet - but I am going to go nuts when I'm at Black Sheep. Stu already knows this - I told him I was going to take his personal amount too (each person gets to bring a certain amount through customs for free).

I'm making super great progress on Mr. Greenjeans. I'm almost done the body. I'll definitely be finished by tonight - then it's just the sleeves and the ribbing. I'm on track to make my goal of finishing before the weekend.

I'm also hard at work on the 3rd Episode of the Manic Purl Podcast. It'll be up Saturday morning.

By the way - I just had an awesome customer service experience at the Loopy Ewe. Everyone go shop there to support a fabu store!

I hope everyone's having a great week!

I Heart Mr. Greenjeans...

2008-05-10T13:09:00.000-07:00

This is exactly how far I've gotten working on Mr. Greenjeans ----

Front

I already love it! Seriously. I cannot wait to finish it so I can wear it!

So far it's fitting me perfectly, and the yarn is so soft and squishy.

Side

I love the Dream In Color Classy in Blue Lagoon. It is so totally my color. I actually think that I border on obsession with teal.

Back

I'll keep you posted on my progress. I'm just about to start the cabling.

By the way - The Manic Purl - Episode 2: Lace Stole My Heart is up. It is also searchable on iTunes! Woot!

Look What I Did!

2008-05-06T19:44:00.000-07:00

ETA: Now on iTunes! Click here to subscribe!

I made my very own knitting podcast!

I just uploaded the first episode! Can you tell I'm excited?

I'm still waiting for approval from iTunes, but I'll let you know as soon as I'm approved.

For now, you can download The Manic Purl from Libsyn. Click here to get to my Libsyn page with the link to listen.

My show notes can be found here.

I hope you guys like it.

Hanami is Officially Finished!

2008-05-04T13:58:00.000-07:00

Technically the Hanami Stole was finished yesterday, but officially I didn't finish it until today when I unpinned it from my blocking foam.

Since Hanami is cherry blossom inspired, the first thing I did was go outside and take a picture of it in a cherry tree. My street is lined with them, and I figured it was appropriate.

Today was a perfect first day for this shawl's debut. The weather is very warm (18 degrees celsius), but there is still the spring coolness in the air. I think shawls were made for spring and spring was made for shawls. They complement each other perfectly. This one will be great dressed up or dressed down. I wore it today with dark wash jeans and a black tank top, and it did not look one bit out of place.

As usual the magic of blocking has impressed me to no end. I thought the blossom end might look weird, but as soon as I blocked it the eyelets opened up and the falling blossoms were revealed. The basket weave section also opened up nicely, and the few mistakes I made in that section do not show nearly as much as I thought they would.

I am definitely going to have to pick up some blocking wires. I just used a ton of blocking pins, and the fabric comes to a little peak in every spot that I had a pin. It's not all that noticeable, but I'd still prefer to have perfectly crisp straight edges. I've heard something about running cotton string through the stitches on the outside of the shawl and then pinning the string out, but I haven't tried this yet. It seems like blocking wires would be easier.

Here are the details one last time:

Pattern: Hanami Stole by Melanie Gibbons of Pink Lemon Twist.
Yarn: Fiddlesticks Zephyr Laceweight in Pewter (a lovely silvery gray).
Needles: 3.5mm Addi Turbo lace needles in the 32" length.

Spring feels as if it has now officially sprung here, especially now that my 2008 spring shawl is done. I'm enjoying this Sunday with a Caramel Machiato beside me and I'm blogging from a chair on my deck.

Like the Gwen Stefani inspired "tall" hair? I can't decide whether it looks silly or cool on me. I'm leaning towards cool. Especially when I'm wearing my oversized sunglasses.

Hanami Success!

2008-05-03T17:43:00.000-07:00

I did it! I managed to finish Hanami! It was touch and go there for a bit. I am so happy with this!

Pre-Blocking

It's currently blocking, and I'm going to take it outside for some post-blocking pictures tomorrow. I managed to meet my goal of finishing this knit before the cherry blossoms were gone. Every tree on my street, is heavy with cherry blossoms, and I now have my own little piece of the season.

A taste of Hanami blocking

Started: April 5, 2008

Finished: May 3, 2008

Stats:

Pattern: Hanami Stole by Melanie Gibbons

Yarn: 1.5 balls of Fiddlesticks Zephyr 50% merino 50% silk laceweight in the Pewter colorway

Changes made: None

Would I knit it again? No, but I am absolutely smitten with this one and I'm glad I knit it.

Etsy Finds of the Day...

2008-05-02T19:04:00.000-07:00

I am convinced that I have found the cutest bowl ever. It's meant to be a cat dish, but I bought it to use as a candy dish. The little cat on the side reminds me of Redd.

I just couldn't stop thinking about this bowl, so I had to buy it.

The seller is Bailey Bowls. She was super friendly and really nice. Go check out her shop.

My second find of the day was these little bowls---

They are small bowls for salsa and guacamole! The maker of these bowls is LaPella Pottery. These are going to be perfect for chips and salsa on the deck this summer.

I really let myself splurge on these with my birthday money. They are all things I really really like, but would not normally buy for myself. I am so thankful that I was able to order these pieces, and I know that I will have many years of enjoyment from them in the years to come. They are real birthday keepsakes.